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Hard to comment without North and a needs statement. But it feels that everything has been crunched from top to bottom, and I think you need to reorientate some elements across it. The plan feels like a collapsed soufflé, and is too squashed imo. Try putting your two main bedrooms right across each end, and see what happens. I think you want as many of your doors as poss to be in top to bottom walls on the plan. Too much space on your tight dimension is occupied by door swing and walkthrough areas, which knocks out most of a top to bottom slice of your plan each time; you do not have the space for that 8n that dimension. Make people see the long dimension when they are moving around when possible. A crossways or dogleg or out and back staircase may also help. A plan of @ProDave‘s static caravan might help at this point. F

60m² is fine for a single ring final, so my guess is OK (there's no limit to the number of outlets on a single ring final circuit, just an area limit). You will need to add the studio power and lighting circuits to the earlier load estimate though. You could probably get away with a radial power outlet circuit for the studio at 16 A, plus a 6 A lighting circuit, so that adds another 13 A + 3.96 A = 16.96 A to the total, bringing it up from 67 A to nearly 84 A, so just too high for your 80 A supply, even without a water heater (but bear in mind that I've guessed the load for the ASHP and cooker). I think you need to sit down with your electrician (as he'll be the one signing this off) and discuss all the loads, both in the house and in the studio, and work out a wiring configuration that enables you to stay within the maximum demand limit. Some electricians are a bit more forgiving than others when it comes to applying diversity to loads to check that the maximum load is within limits, although strictly speaking they should work to the letter of the regs. The flip side is that sometimes a strict interpretation might be applied, too. You can probably help by ensuring that you know things like the ASHP maximum input power and the cooker maximum input power. Opting for a separate oven and hob, or perhaps two ovens and hob, can increase the load a lot. For example, we have two built in ovens plus an induction hob and the maximum peak load on the cooker circuit is 63 A, not the 40 A I assumed earlier.

Brilliant! Good scientist that you are, I assume you worked methodically through your pantry cupboard until you hit upon peppermint. I can imagine the process… coffee powder, lemon, chilli powder, marmite… before the Eureka moment!

The only way spiders seem to get in to our house (or used to) was when a door was opened. As @PeterStarck says, they seem to congregate at the bottom of outside doors and run in when the door is opened. I've completely stopped this now, with a diluted peppermint oil spray. It seems spiders don't much like the smell of peppermint, so stay away from it. Since using this we've had no spiders coming in through the doors at all. The only downside is that you have to spray the door threshold every 2 to 3 weeks, as the peppermint oil slowly evaporates.

20190729_150753.mp4

BC will inspect them. fensa just means the installer does the inspection rather than bc.

I am one. Did the course, passed with flying colours........✔️

@Russell griffiths, even I fitted one of my windows. I mean, come on......

Flip the floor over - puts all the water and waste at one end. Upstairs toilet won’t pass Part M either looking at the size. I think you are pushing it to get 4 bedrooms in downstairs with that layout how about a rethink where the stairs are in the middle of the two sets of full height windows ..? The stairs won’t have anywhere near enough headroom with that wall layout anyway - you can recon that you need 10 steps showing in a well from above with a standard pitch. You also have your kitchen island and breakfast bar with their back to the window - you could rotate that all 90 degrees.

Not sure that it's wise to recommend breaching regs (and possibly the law). The regs now prohibit illicitly connecting a second dwelling to the pipes running to/from an existing dwelling, there would be fraud implications, especially if the existing dwelling isn't on a metered water supply, plus building control would almost certainly flag it during the drain inspection and test. Probably not that great an idea to promote potentially unlawful activity on this forum, either. "Trade" prices aren't always the best, as many trade suppliers offer credit, as many trades people rely on supplier credit to reduce their up-front risk (having 30 days to pay suppliers gives them time to get paid for the work). I found that offering cash with order pretty much always got better pricing, and many online suppliers easily beat the very best prices from builder's merchants. As an example, I set up a cash account with my local independent builder's merchant, which was about 5% to 15% cheaper than the prices I would have got from a trade account. However, when I wanted a load of reconstituted stone, plus the pavers for the drive, I got a very much better price from an online supplier. My local BM offered to try and price match (I built up a good relationship with them), but they told me that they couldn't even buy in the stuff at the price I was getting from the online supplier.

make them plumb, level and square. screwed to walls, sealed with expanding tape, done

I meant how orientating spaces across the narrow dimension makes it feel a better shape ... like putting obtangular tiles across rather than along a narrow bathroom helps the perception of width. tbh I had not noticed quite how big the dimensions were. But 6m is still tight for 2 comfortable rooms, so I think the thoughts are a reasonable comment. Are some of those elements eg doors, beds, bath, drawn bigger than is the case?

I am not sure how. My static caravan gets 2 bedrooms, a living / dining / kitchen, a shower room and a WC into 28 square metres and just a shade over 3 metres wide. but you can't copy that for a house layout as it would no way meet building regs for a house, it is all too small, tiny doorways, tiny rooms. But this house is 6 metres wide. That is about the width of the "standard" semi detached house. so you should be able to get a reasonable layout. My only suggestion is that collection of 3 doors (bathroom, left and centre bedrooms) Rotate the orientations of the doors by 45 degrees, so instead of taking a square of one room, it takes a little triangle off each of the 3 rooms. Put a turn at the end of the stairs so the landing (hall?) does not need to have a square of landing at one end.

Yes, looks like more finger trouble... Not sure how the "2" ended up in front of the "5", I'll edit it.

There does not seem to be any storage space. Also the bathrooms look tight and I can't work out where the landing is. What is the room top right? When you say 1 metre reduction in width, is that side-to-side or top-to-bottom on your plan?

@soapstar We live a couple of miles from the sea. We have Rehau Geneo fibre reinforced uPVC frames which are insulated and the thermal performance is better than timber. We had the corner welds filled before the frames were sprayed and so far everybody who has commented thinks they are aluminium.

OK, so I'm guessing here that your electrician is planning ahead and has worked out that the sum of the loads, allowing for diversity, exceeds the 80 A fuse. I've listed what I'm guessing you may have in the consumer unit (once it's fitted): 1 off ring final circuit at 32 A, allowing for diversity = 10 A + (50% of (32 A - 10 A))) = 21 A (these are your 13 A outlets, I'm assuming there will be only one circuit as the house is a modest size - need the number of outlets to do a proper calculation, really. If your floor area exceeds 100m² then you need a second ring final circuit) 1 off lighting circuit at 6 A, allowing for diversity = 6 A x 66% = 3.96 A (same assumption as above, just one circuit assumed) 1 off Sunamp circuit at 16 A, allowing for diversity and assuming the heating element is rated at 3 kW = 13 A 1 off ASHP circuit at 16 A (need to check this, and need power rating of ASHP) = probably around 10 A (could be a bit lower) 1 off electric water heater at 60 A (48 A appliance load, no diversity allowable) = 48 A 1 off cooker circuit at 40 A (might be 32 A, or could possibly be 50 A, need the maximum power on the appliance(s) label(s)), allowing for diversity = 10 A + (30% x 30 A) = 19 A (add 5 A to this if there is a socket on the cooker outlet switch plate). The sum of all the above comes to 21 A + 3.96 A + 13 A + 10 A + 48 A + 19 A = 114.96 A This is way over the 80 A supply limit, and also way over a 100 A supply limit too. Fitting a priority load switch so that the cooker and electric water heater share the same circuit (needs care over circuit protection devices to do this) would allow you to stay under the 80 A limit, but would mean that the cooker and the electric water heater couldn't be used at the same time. You can choose which you wish to take priority over the other. The alternative is to get rid of the water heater. There isn't enough spare capacity (based on the rough and ready estimates above) to allow any reasonable size of instant water heater to work OK really. Without the water heater the maximum demand comes down to about 67 A, well within the limit of the supply.

If you can give that list of circuits that are being run from this supply then it's five minutes work to tell you the answer. It may be that your electrician has misread the main fuse as being 60 A rather than 80 A, but it's easy to calculate whether you can have the instant water heater connected without a priority switch.

It only works on the salary multiplier, usually. I've not encountered a lender that will increase the amount borrowed over and above that multiplier. For a salary of £30k the maximum a lender is likely to advance will be £135k. They will check that you don't have higher than normal outgoings, just to be confident that you're going to be able to meet the repayments, but they won't lend you more if your outgoings are unusually low, as a general rule.

As pretty much every lender only lends up to a fixed multiple of income, then outgoings don't make any significant difference as far as a mortgage goes. If the limit is 4.5 times your income, then that's the limit, and I doubt that it could be increased.

we have warm air, heated by gas, and I love it. its quick to warm up the house from cold, clothes dry overnight if placed near an outlet and we have not had any problems with dry air. that could be due to the timber frame house as we dont suffer from condensation after showers too. so dont be too quick to bin it.?

There is a company locally who advertise spraying in situ...garage doors, window frames, front doors even whole rendered walls, if it can be sprayed they will do it. No experience of the product but quite a lot of white upvc windows are turning anthracite grey around here!

A house near us got some new flush windows about three years ago. Liked the look of them, so called in to see where they got them from. It was only when I got to about three feet away that I could tell they were not wood and that was only because of the glazing bars. They were Residence 9.

We looked at some UPVC windows that were foiled and others that were sprayed with Kolorbond and they were much better looking than I expected.

We went with a bog-standard anthracite coloured UPVC (which has a woodgrain texture outside, gloss white internally) and it's remarkable how much the profiles have changed in recent times- the glazing rubbers are just-about hidden. Perfectly happy with our choice.

Alu clad uPVC is another option if the planners don't like uPVC. I think the timber colour looks a bit naff.

Do make sure you see samples of this. I have no personal experience, but have seen many replacement windows in houses and the fake timber can be spotted easily from the street, looks nasty IMO.

For warm flat roofs, 100% of the insulation should be located above the roof structure on top of the deck. In practice this does not always happen but you are best to follow the BBA certificate of the insulation manufacturer.

My experience with warn air heating is that it makes the air very dry, making ones eyes and skin feel itchy and uncomfortable. Also the air tends to form currents rather than be distributed evenly. If you could add humidity, this may be OK, otherwise you may want to replace with rads. ASHP will be expensive to run if you do not improve airtightness and insulation. Perhaps a combi boiler with rads is your best option. As you have identified, the solid concrete floor will be a pain to insulate as you probably don't have enough ceiling height to do this without breaking out the concrete, but even 30mm Celotex overlayed with chipboard will make a considerable difference. Blown bead cavity wall insulation is reasonably cheap and cost effective. I am not sure what, if any, insulation is in the first floor ceilings, but if none, this will be and area where you will lose a lot of heat. With the loft part you can just add more loft roll but with the sloped areas you would need to strip the plasterboard if you want to add insulation. All your Immediate items look doable with your budget and although a mile away from the standard of self build new builds it will be a great improvement on what you have.

If you're on the coast - uPVC all the way. I would also recommend shopping about and talking to various suppliers - there are some really nice uPVC profiles available now which look almost identical to alu-clad/timber. These for example look really nice (IMO) - https://www.kjmgroup.co.uk/products/windows/residence-9- If you pay peanuts, of course, you will get the bog standard, 'safe style' ugly white stuff.

I have timber ali clad which is perfect for my inland exposed location. If I were on the coast without question I would go for upvc. I grew up on the coast and remember well the constant battle to keep the timber windows in good order.

will the architect come and treat/paint the windows for you?

@ wozza - fair point. I have asked for a copy of the results and permission to share them.

Hi @lizzie, will endeavour to oblige but in its tinted state I imagine it performs much the same as any 3G glazing.

That is a question I have yet to find the answer to?

Probably not, as the lower part of the chamber is sat in was filled with waste water. The crate sat in the top to sort of skim off the solidified fat that floated up in that chamber. On the topic of rainwater storage, we have just under 4,000 litres of surge attenuation storage under our drive. That was just enough for the run off from our roof and drive for our area.

Bit late to this thread. I checked the temp probe we put in the render cavity on the south wall and it hit 38.8oc 4pm on Thursday. Don't know what the internal was as I switched off the internal stats. This is because on Tuesday night, I left one of the sliders locked open for stack ventilation but forgot that the UFH stat was directly opposite, so as the room temp dropped below 22oc, the UFH came on (don't bother with the timer) so I came down to a suspiciously warm floor on Weds morning. To prevent a repeat the UFH is now off at the power source until winter

I recently bought a dozen from an online supplier, about 75cm long, 30cm wide, pretty lightweight. Well, I received 2 dozen in total and most of them cosmetically damaged, minor dents and scratches. All because they weren’t packed correctly. All metal to metal contact with no separating material between them ?‍♂️. Returned them for a refund. I’ll PM the name to you. making some out of decking board instead and painting them battleship grey.

Wayfair sell them. We bought wood planters from them and they have been good. https://www.wayfair.co.uk/garden/sb1/metal-planters-window-boxes-c1870049-a2912~6721.html

Yes, I've used two types, one I'd recommend and one I wouldn't (hence why we've used two types). I first used the Byron/HomeEasy ones, and they were less than 100% reliable, even over a short distance. I changed to the Quinetic ones from TLC (https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Wiring_Accessories_Menu_Index/Quinetic/index.html ) and found they work very well indeed.

This seems a little unworthy of an activity followed by Halo-burnishing. Eradicate the food supply, then move in the spiders. A little torturous? "Good morning, Fido", said Mother Hubbard. "It is your favourite birdseed today; I removed the Pedigree Chum last night because I knew you would need breakfast. But think of your slimming campaign." F

Have a read of these two foundation beginnings: @PeterStarck @JSHarris http://www.mayfly.eu/2013/08/part-ten-out-of-the-ground/

Errr .... ?

Us too. The badgers have just started excavating the lawn at night to get at them.

I Aqua Panelled then tanked the whole lot using the Aqua Seal kit. Tile adhesive went on no problem. Seems to have stuck. Believe me, we're giving the wet room corner a serious bashing.

Yup seems so